James Wan’s Aquaman was such a hit that not only will it get a sequel, even its tertiary characters are getting their own movies. Just not the ones anyone expected.
Writers Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald have been hired to write The Trench, a horror-themed DC movie focused on the creatures who attack Arthur (Jason Momoa) and Mera (Amber Heard) toward the end of Aquaman.
All that’s known about the film, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is that “it will be set in the kingdom of the Trench and will not feature the main cast of Aquaman”.
Wan will produce along with Peter Safran, and the film will be “much more modestly budgeted than the normal DC superhero tentpole,” according to the trade.
Look. The trench scene in Aquaman was super cool. The visuals were great, the world was obviously interesting, and yes, there is more lore that can be drawn from the underwater landscape and the comics.
But you have to wonder, why the hell are the Trench people the first to get a spinoff in this insanely vast, expansive world?
Well, probably because none of the stars are in it. It’s a world that’s almost completely sealed off to anything happening in Atlantis or on the surface, so there’s no need to worry about Aquaman, Mera, or Orm having to get involved, let alone Shazam or Batman.
Plus, this is James Wan we’re talking about here. The guy who directed an awesome, relatively small horror film called The Conjuring and has since spun it off into its own franchise thanks to films such as The Nun and Annabelle. If anyone knows how to create a world within a world, it’s Wan.